Arlington sellers are playing the Amazon game, and might miss out

ALEXANDRIA, VA. - The toughest housing markets for potential homebuyers in the Washington, D.C. area remain Arlington County and Alexandria, and it is not getting any better.

The number of houses and condos for sale in Arlington County, Virginia, in July was down 57% from a year ago, and active inventory in Alexandria was down 56%, despite sky-high prices for what is selling.

Some potential sellers are still waiting for the Amazon HQ2 effect to fully kick in.

“Some sellers are thinking ‘gosh, why don’t I just wait until Amazon gets into full bloom before I sell my house, because maybe values will go up even higher,'” Christine Richardson, president of the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors, told WTOP.

“But I’m not sure that is necessarily the right way to think about it, because often that initial exuberance is actually higher than reality turns out to be.”